Feminist and lesbian strategies of reading and the novels of Sarah Waters and Jeanette Winterson

Luis, C

Abstract

This thesis examines strategies of feminist and lesbian reading in relation to the novels of
Sarah Waters and Jeanette Winterson, focusing primarily on Waters's Affinity (1999) and The
Night Watch (2006), and Winterson's Sexing the Cherry (1989), Written on the Body (1992),
and The PowerBook (2000). Three strategies of reading reading as romance, reading as
quest and reading as revision are developed and explored, one in each chapter, in an effort
to address the overarching question of this thesis: how do we read as feminists and/or
lesbians? This question generates two subsequent research questions which frame the
readings of Waters's and Winterson's novels offered in the individual chapters of this thesis.
In the case of Winterson's fiction and particularly in Chapter Two, this question is, how
useful is it to continue to read Winterson as a "lesbian writer?" In the case of Waters's fiction
and particularly in Chapter Three, this question is, is Waters's project really to write the
lesbian back into history? Together, these questions reflect a more general research question
which draws together the fiction of Waters and Winterson by asking, how can readings of
both writers' work move beyond the expectations placed on the "lesbian author"? This thesis
contributes original research to the field of contemporary women's writing by advancing new
ideas and arguments which aim to widen the contexts in which the fiction of these two authors
is read. In the case of Winterson's fiction, an original reading is presented which establishes
the significance of her fiction to a literary tradition of narrative romance. In the case of
Waters's fiction, an original reading is presented which establishes the revisionary project of
her fiction as a concern to enable the reading of history from a lesbian reading position.

Citation

Luis, C. Feminist and lesbian strategies of reading and the novels of Sarah Waters and Jeanette Winterson. (Thesis). Salford : University of Salford

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Oct 3, 2012
• Award Date: Jan 1, 2010